


The Drive Home

by Emmasinthebooknow



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Road Trip, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 16:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2474219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmasinthebooknow/pseuds/Emmasinthebooknow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a road trip with Killian and Henry, Emma unexpectedly discovers a memento from her childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Drive Home

Emma's road trip has been hijacked by her preteen son and a 300-year-old pirate. 

She told them from the start: this was not a sightseeing trip. They were giving a ride home to a delivery-truck driver who crashed into the Storybrooke sign. The driver had mentioned that he might stay the night in town, until a buddy could pick him up, so Emma jumped to her feet and grabbed her car keys. (And then Killian and Henry threw themselves in the backseat, insisting they come along. Killian kept saying, "I love 'road trips,' Swan!" and looking immensely proud of himself for knowing the term.)

They behaved for the first 3 hours, until the truck driver was gone. But it's only been five minutes since the driver was dropped off, and Killian has already seen a detour they _must_ take.

"But Swan! The sign says 'Home of the World's Largest Lobster!' In the whole realm, Swan - we absolutely must stop and see!" And Henry chimes in, making sad eyes in the rearview mirror: "We might get trapped in Storybrooke again and not ever get another chance!" They wail about how this is their last chance ever to see the World's Largest Lobster, until she pulls off at the exit, muttering darkly. They cheer.

(She'd never admit it to them, but it's nice, and distracts her from this strange anxiety that's been building in her. Why does she keep gripping the wheel so tightly? Why does she feel something in the pit of her stomach as she looks at every road sign?)

Then they pull over to the roadside diner which claims to house the World's Largest Lobser inside, and she feels a clenching tight in her chest. Whatever she's been afraid of, it's here.

It's the smell. It's just an ordinary diner smell, but Emma stands stock still by the bug, feeling her skin prickle as the anxiety begins to rush through her. She tries to pick through the scents. Fried foods, sugary pies, potato products, something lobster-y, and.... _apples._ It's the faintest tart-sweet hint of fresh apples. And not just any apples, but apples she somehow knows. Emma's throat tightens. She doesn't know when or how, but she has been here before.

"Love?" Killian lays a hand on her arm. Henry is watching her, too. They both look so worried.

"I..." Her mouth is dry. She can't think of the words to explain. "Do you smell apples?"

Henry scrunches up his nose, looking around. "Maybe a little?"

Emma starts walking, scanning the area trying to follow the scent. A old bluesey song plays from inside the diner, drifting out in rhythmic waves of longing.

The smell is coming from outside the diner, she's sure of it now. She follows it out of the parking lot, into a field of brushy, thigh-high weeds and ferns. She kicks through it, swishing, and it slaps against her legs. Until she reaches the back of the diner, where she finds herself at the edge of a grove of apple trees.

Emma stops walking. The scent is overpowering, sweet and tart, and it fills her with an intense, inexplicable fear. That she will be taken away from these people, and never get to see Killian and Henry emote about the World's Largest Lobster, and never see them, or Storybrooke, again. She needs to get in the car as fast as possible, burn rubber out of this parking lot, get home, and possibly hide in a closet until this feeling goes away.

And she doesn't even know why she feels it.

"Love?"

Emma realizes that she has her hand clasped over her nose and mouth. Killian is beside her. Emma rearranges her face, and glances back at Henry, who's a few feet behind, looking puzzled. 

"We should go," Emma says.

"What is this place?" Henry asks. He has an odd look on his face.

Emma shakes her head. "I just thought I saw....someone. But I didn't."

"Is it that tree?" Henry says. "Did they do that?" 

Emma looks where he's pointing. It's a large tree, heavy with red fruit. And then Emma understands. Oh, she understands it all.

"Henry,' Emma says, warning, but he's already running forward. "Henry!"

"They all say 'Emma!'" Henry says, pointing. "Look! Every single one!"

Emma presses her lips together. Tears spring to her eyes, as Henry traces his hand along the childlike handwriting that has carved her name, like a gash, into the trunk of all these trees. She feels Killian's hand link with hers. He doesn't speak, doesn't ask. But suddenly, she can't bear it - she needs to tell him. Needs to him to know.

Softly, she says, "I went through a phase. When I was a little kid."

She can feel him watching her. He's so still. Like he's trying not to move, trying not to startle her.

"I was being bounced from foster home to foster home. And when I was about five, I decided that...." She laughs. "I decided I was lost, not abandoned. That real my parents were out there, desperately looking for me." His hand tightens around hers, and he squeezes back. "So I carved my name into trees. I have no idea why, I just did. I thought somehow they'd find me, if they saw the trees. I always did it when they were driving me to a new foster home. I'd beg to go to the bathroom, then run away at the rest stop and find trees."

She feels her cheeks flush. She's a little embarassed, even though she knows she was just a kid. She peeks over at him. He's looking at her, and he smooths her hair behind her ear.

"I think we should fix these," he murmurs. "Is that okay?"

She has no idea what he has in mind, but his hand is on her cheek, and he has the saddest, sweetest smile, so she nods. 

He walks forward, to where Henry is exploring the grove. "Come here, lad. Watch me, I'll let you do the next one." Killian drags his hook across the bark. Emma can't quite see what he's doing, but she hears the familiar scrape. Then he brushes away with his hand, and when he steps back, there is a heart drawn around her name.

"Better," he says. Then he pops his hook out of its brace, hands it to Henry, and says, "You do the next one." And happily, Henry does. 

They do the whole grove. Emma's clothes become coated with a fine dust of ground-up tree bark. When they are done, Emma walks up and runs her finger along the grooves of one of the rough, dusty hearts. She does it two, three, four times, because it feels good, and safe, and she doesn't ever want this feeling to stop.

In the diner, they revel in the wonder of the World's Largest Lobster. Then they get a booth and order lobster pie, and ice cream sundaes for dessert. Killian gets more whipped cream, so Emma dips her finger into his and steals some, and he calls her "pirate." Henry asks for a cinnamon shaker from a waitress, then reaches over and sprinkles cinnamon onto Emma's vanilla ice cream. It tastes like home.

Back on the road, Killian finds ridiculous reasons for them to stop at every single rest stop, diner, and tourist trap from there back to Storybrooke. And then Henry does an incredibly un-subtle job of distracting Emma while Killian runs off towards the nearest grove of trees and searches their trunks. She lets them.

And weeks later, in Storybrooke, Emma spots a tree in the park with her name carved in it, and a heart around it. And she keeps seeing them, just one every month or so, all around town. They're in such different handwriting, she's sure that more than one person is doing it. And they never stop.


End file.
